Bryan Hurley wrote: > So I want to get Ricochet in the near future, but am not sure whether to > go USB/serial external or PCMCIA... external lets me place it somewhere > else, but adds bulk, but somewhere else, in addition to more > batteries...though I hear they last 6 hours.... Versus PCMCIA, which adds > bulk to the PC with height, but then it is isolated in one place, and then > uses the PC battery... Bryan, I used to have a CPU carrier board plus dual pcmcia board plus sound board plus microcontroller circuit plus VFD driver circuit plus gps receiver plus serial ricochet modem. It had awesome capablities, but my jacket weighed a ton, and was getting to be quite uncomfortable because of all of the bulk. I then went on a quest for serious streamlining, to integrate functionality where possible (ie use a multimedia board), choose smaller and lighter components, and give up some functionality in the tradeff of reduction of weight and bulk. Moving to the PCM-5822 was a leap forward since it removed the PC/104 sound card. I also made a conscious tradeoff in eliminating PCMCIA and giving up local wireless (ranglean pcmcia) since when at home I don't really need to roam around. I also moved from bulky VFD to a much smaller LCD, and from laptop HDD to microdrive in the CF socket. I also looked into the U-blox tiny gps receiver, actually had one in my hands, it was only $150 and was amazingly small, but required 3.3v, used a tiny connector for antenna that I couldn't find, and was in 84-pin PLCC packaging, making it hard to interface. Some day I will revisit the u-blox GPS in order to continue on my quest for streamlining. In addition to these tradeoffs, I decided to work towards a modular microcontroller design, where I coud plug in or remove modules when desired, all for the same quest in reducing bulk and weight. I am making slow progress on that front. I will end up with one microcontroller that is mandatory, for driving IO peripheras like LCDs and matrix keypads, and one or more hot swappable modules that add other features like navigation, sensors, and biofeedback. If I remove my custom circuitry (for sensors) from the equation, my system is quite small, just the single 4x6 inch PCM-5822 with microdrive in CF slot, and one very small 2.5 x 1.5 circuit that interfaces the VFD and other user IOs (IR remote, LEDs, etc). This seems to be as streamlined as I'm going to get without moving to DIMM-PC or MZ104, which implies giving up my multimedia capabilities. I already gave up PCMCIA, and wireless LAN that required it, just to remove that PCMCIA PC/104 board. When at home I just plug into 10-base-T, and that doesn't bother me. When mobile I use ricochet. I love ricochet, but the modems are way too big for my likings, and the need to charge the modem is a real PITA. I actually like my old ricochet SX modem better because it's nice and flat (only about 1/4 inch) thus making it body friendly, but it's slower at 56k. The new ricochet GS modems are smaller length wise, but are much fatter, almost an inch thick! I have both the SX and GS modems in front of me, and I think they are way more bulky and heavy than they should be. For this reason, I am looking to move towards the PCMCIA merlin for ricochet in the future. It's a tough call, because as Jason mentioned, distribution around the body is very desireable. But OTOH moving from these bulky modems to the PCMCIA version would be a good tradeoff IMO. I have a dual PCMCIA card that I could plug into the PCM-5822, but I would hate to increase the depth of my nice and small CPU enclosure which is one inch thick. I could of course extend the PC/104 bus with cables, but that too would be bulky. What I really want is a multimedia SBC with a single PCMCIA slot, this would be the ultimate solution. I could then swap between wireless LAN (rangelan or wavelan) or ricochet (merlin) or CDPD as the situation dictates, and it would even be reasonable to carry the extra modems in my pocket, I'd hardlt notice that they are there. In spite of Matt's problems with his Lanner EM-350, it does have that major advantage of a single PCMCIA slot. I think I will me moving back towards PCMCIA in the future, just to have the abiliy to swap between PCMCIA modems for LAN, CDPD, and ricochet. But I not keen on adding a PCMCIA board. Therefore I will be keeping my eyes open for an SBC that has single PCMCIA slot. If I was starting from square zero I would probably choose to use a PCMCIA card plus SBC with merlin for ricochet over the ricochet GS modems. The other possibility is a more distributed approach like the MIThrill design, which uses multiple PPC/ARM modules, one of which has a single PCMCIA slot. But I am very hesitant to move away from x86 architecture for software and driver reasons. I think that my next major shift will be towards either DIMM-PC or MZ104. The MZ104 looks appealing power-wise, but if I have to add a VGA card and a PCMCIA card, I'm back to an unacceptable bulk/weight level. Sigh. There are no optimal solutions out there. I'd like to see a version of the Tiqit MatchboxPC with a single PCMCIA slot and ports for both VGA and LCD panel connection. Actually, I want my entire wearable to fit in the pendant around my neck and operate on energy from my body. Some day we will be talking about such nonsense in a real way. Today we can't even find HMDs that are decent mobile monitor replacements. The Inviso e-shades look promising if they can deliver. The question I have is will they sell to Joe Induhvidual or must you have the clout of a corporation behind you? I guess only time will tell. In the meantime I continue my pursuit for alternative IOs using small text/graphics LCDs and small flat panel LCDs, they are a very functional alternative. -- Doug Go for the Merlin ... ------------------------------------------------------------ Grow your own Wearables: http://wearables.los-gatos.net What I'd like is to have you call me and my jacket answers ------------------------------------------------------------ -- Subscription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with subject of "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" toWear-Hard Mailing List Archive (searchable): http://wearables.blu.org please, Please, *PLEASE* don't subscribe through a forward/false domain
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